At NMX 2013, Dino Dogan from Triberr sat down to talk with UFC President Dana White about Twitter, the possibility of the UFC going public, and more. Dino is a true fight fan with a passion for new media, so he was the perfect person to interview Dana! Check out the video here:

Thanks, Dino, for a great interview with Dana! Dana also sat down with NMX’s Rick Calvert and Dave Cynkin to talk more about how the UFC is using social media, so if you missed that interview, you can see it now here.

Dino was one of our NMX 2013 speakers, and his session was packed. You know things are good when it’s still standing room only at the end of the presentation! For this week only, Dino’s session is 100% free on NMX University, the home of our 2013 virtual ticket. Don’t miss out; check out Dino speak about Insane Loyalty today!

Building Your Business with Twitter Transcript

Dino Dogan (0:08): Hello everybody, my name is Dino, founder of Triberr, and I’m sitting here with Dana White. We’re broadcasting this from Vegas for BlogRoll.com. And, it’s an absolute pleasure for me to sit here with the president and the face of the UFC. And the way UFC has been using social media is absolutely bleeding edge and very fascinating. And we’re going to talk to Dana to get some insights into how he uses social media.

(0:41)So, Dana, thank you for being here. Excellent keynote earlier. I want you to make a business case for Twitter. How do you use Twitter to actually lead your business?

Dana White (0:55): The way that I personally use Twitter is I speak directly to the fans. I talk to the fans one on one. You know, I’m not speaking for the company, as the company, it’s me. You’re talking to me personally. And that’s the way that I like to do it, but what Twitter does for me, as far as the night of a fight, right, which is different from anything we’ve ever done in the history of the company is, you always have problems. Things are always going to go wrong. You know, I’ve had situations where people’s seats were blocked by a camera or pay-per-view goes down in Indiana, a laundry list of things that I wouldn’t have known until Monday. But because of Twitter, I can handle it that night, get everything taken care of, make sure that everybody has a good experience. That’s my job that night, is to make sure that everybody that bought a ticket or stayed home to buy the pay-per-view or watch it on free TV is having the best experience they can possibly have. So, I love that. That’s one of the million aspects I love about Twitter and social media.

Dino (1:58): Yeah. And you can respond to situations, to the crisis in real time.

Dana (2:01): Yep.

Dino (2:02): Yeah, that’s amazing. You’re out there. You’re doing it yourself. You almost take pride in saying that you’re bypassing the PR department; the filter that’s created between you the person and the audience. And there’s certain inherent danger in that. And, clearly, you embrace the danger. And the benefit of it outweighs the danger. But, you’re out there, you have 400 fighters doing what you do, representing the brand. And just tell us a little bit about the crises that you’ve encountered. How many of them have you encountered? How exaggerated is the danger of getting out there?

Dana (2:46): Yeah, it’s very exaggerated. I mean, yes, we’ve had a couple…I have 400 plus guys tweeting every day. I tweet every day. You know, you’re going to have some problems here and there. The biggest problem that we’ve ever had is guys trying to be funny. Telling jokes and, basically, I tell these guys, use common sense when tweeting. You’re not a comedian. Leave the jokes to your friends, in your inner circle. Don’t tweet jokes. But, really, we’ve really had no problems. There’s going to be some stupid stuff here and there but, at the end of the day, people need to relax.

Dino (3:22): Right. It’s a tweet.

Dana (3:23): It’s a tweet. It’s a tweet, relax.

Dino (3:27): Get over it. That’s terrific. A lot of people want to know. UFC is a giant franchise. You guys are just going gangbusters. You’re on this incredible upslide. Are you going to go IPO?

Dana (3:43): I never say “never”, but I’d have to say never. I don’t think we…I don’t think so. I don’t think we’d do it. I haven’t seen too many great experiences with going public. And I just don’t think this is one of those businesses that we could really run the way that we wanted to if we’re not…The thing that I’ve always said since day one, too, about going public is, nobody believed in this thing. When we first bought it, started to build it, nobody believed in it.

Dino (4:13): I just want to say that I did.

Dana (4:14): Well, I’m talking about the business world, right? Now, all of a sudden, I’m going to take advice from these guys, you know, on Wall Street who never believed in it in the first place?

Dino (4:23): Right

Dana (4:24): I don’t see it. Not while I’m here, anyway.

Dino (4:25): Gotcha. Terrific. Anderson Silva/Georges St. Pierre fight. I know you’re working on it. This year? Could it happen this year?

Dana (4:34): Yeah, it could. You know, obviously, everybody knows that GSP wants to fight Diaz right now. That fight’s going to happen. And after that fight, should Georges St. Pierre beat Diaz…yeah. I want to make the fight. I mean, everybody thought it was going to happen after Georges’ fight with Condit. The kid had, you know, almost two years off with a knee injury, rehabilitating. And he wants another fight first, so, we’ll see what happens.

Dino (4:58): Fair enough. You have your employees actively engaged in social media. And, I know this is not a fair stereotype, but if a general population was to imagine the worst type of person to represent your brand, that would be a fighter. Because they’re perceived as brutes, which they’re not.

Dana (5:23): Right.

Dino (5:23): I know this. But, there’s…you have a lot of your employees actively engaged, getting out there, representing your brand and there’s a certain amount of training that they have to go through in order to…just to know what tools to use, how to use them and how to represent themselves. Like you said, don’t try to be funny, you’re not a comedian, right. So, tell us a little bit about the training that these guys go through for social media.

Dana (5:50): Yeah. It’s not as hard as you would think. Not only do I have, you know, 400 plus fighters. But when you say my employees, my actual employees inside the company are all on Twitter too. And, you know, obviously you’ve got to educate them on how to use Twitter, how to do this, how to do that as far as using social media goes. And then is all about using common sense. And I’m very lucky in that I’m not dealing with stupid people here. Yes, we have 400 plus fighters. Most of these guys are college educated. You know, very smart guys. Guys who, not only are the representing the UFC and the sport, but they represent themselves and their own brands and their own business. For instance, like Anderson Silva. Anderson Silva has 3 million followers on Twitter. When he’s done fighting and he moves on to the next chapter of his life, those 3 million fans are going to go with him into the next chapter. So, he’s not just representing us and the sport, he’s representing himself, you know, and his family and whatever he decides to do when fighting is over.

Dino (6:51): Right, yeah. I have a theory about Anderson Silva. Is he really a robot?

You get the idea. Include @WeCare, the Twitter handle of your charity, the link, the #MillionDimes and #NMX hashtags, and what the promotion is about. And, by doing so, you’ll be helping your favorite causes!

Oh, and by the way, retweets count, so get your following involved to help you (and them) raise money for charity. If you can get celebs or other high profile people involved, your charity may be able to get even more money! Or tweet them to let them know that they can help their favorite charity! Any U.S. nonprofit cause 501 (c3, c4) is eligible.

Double Dimes:

When a nonprofit includes the Twitter handle of another nonprofit, those tweets and retweets count twice. So, make sure all the nonprofits you know on Twitter know they can multiply their impact when they mention other causes.

The fundraiser starts today at 12 p.m. (PT), Monday, January 7, and continues though 12pm on Monday January 14 at 12 p.m. So, you have a full week to raise lots of money for the causes you care about. Now, let’s start tweeting to make a difference!

As you already know, Chris Hardwick and Inventing the Future with Robert Tercek will be joining us at NMX. But, what you didn’t know is that they’ll now be together in one action-packed keynote! We’re so excited for this amazing session, as there’s lots of fun in store.

Chris and Robert will be welcoming some special guests and the keynote will discuss the evolving new media landscape as it pertains to television and programming. Inventing the Future with Robert Tercek will also perform a web show for us live at the keynote, complete with live band and lots of surprises. Trust us, this is not your ordinary web TV show and will be a keynote you won’t want to miss!

Tuesday Schedule Changes

Chris Hardwick’s keynote has changed from Monday to Tuesday. Chris will join Inventing the Future with Robert Tercek at 4:15 p.m. on Tuesday. Please note, the Tuesday keynote is now in the afternoon and not the morning.

Super Sessions on Tuesday will now be at 9:00 am instead of 4:30 pm.

The last regular session of the day on Tuesday will now start at 3:00 pm and end at 4:00 pm. It is no longer 3:15 pm to 4;15 pm.

More on the Keynote Guests

Chris Hardwick – Chief Creative Officer, Nerdist Industries

Chris Hardwick is a writer for Wired Magazine and is the face of AMC’s first live after show Talking Dead, which airs as a platform to discuss the network’s highly rated show The Walking Dead.

In 2008, Chris founded Nerdist, a website and podcast devoted to all things nerd related. In 2011, Nerdist merged with GeekChicDaily to form Nerdist Industries with Hardwick serving as Founder & Chief Creative Officer and digital media entrepreneur Peter Levin serving as Chief Executive Officer. Their online presence includes a website at Nerdist.com, a premium YouTube channel (youtube.com/nerdist), the Nerdist News daily e-newsletters, 1.7 million Twitter fans and a podcast network including the flagship Nerdist Podcast which is also produced as a TV show on BBC America. Nerdist hosts live events such as The Nerdist Podcast Live! and Course of the Force, an annual Comic-Con lightsaber relay in partnership with Lucasfilm LTD. In July 2012 Legendary Entertainment, the company behind such genre films as Inception, Watchmen, 300, Man Of Steel and The Dark Knight Trilogy, acquired Nerdist Industries.

Gian Fulgoni – Chairman & Co-Founder of comScore

From 1981-1998, Gian was President/CEO of Information Resources, growing it from start-up to annual revenues of $550 million. In 1991 & 2004, Gian was named Illinois Entrepreneur of the Year. In 2008, he was inducted into the Chicago Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame and named Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Gian holds a B.Sc. Physics and M.A. Marketing and in 2012 was awarded a Honorary Fellowship by University of Glamorgan in Wales for entrepreneurial skills and achievement in market research.

Krause – Founder and CEO of Suite Partners (originator of the LiveLab® Network)

Prior to discovering the new LiveLab medium for agencies and brands, Krause led a distinguished group of agencies on a distinguished group of brands. Krause was Chairman, CEO of Publicis New York (which he helped build in to a top 10 NY agency). He was President of JWT and Hal Riney & Partners Chicago. This followed 14 years at Leo Burnett where Barry led then largest account, McDonald’s, through the infamous “Burger Wars.” As architect of the Jared campaign for Subway, Barry’s success in brand building is detailed in Chip Heath’s bestseller, Made To Stick. Krause was also a key strategist on Progressive’s makeover from obscurity to the #3 auto insurer. He was named an “Agency Innovator” by Advertising Age.

Krause recently lectured at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and DePaul University on “Brand Building in the Digital Age. He also appeared on a special edition of CNN’s “Crossfire” debating the unequaled reach of television vs. a pure guerrilla strategy. Earlier on, Crain’s honored Barry as one of “40 Under 40 Execs to Watch.” He studied Management of the Creative Enterprise at Harvard and earned a B.S. in Marketing from Bradley.

Robert Tercek – Media Mogul

Robert is one of the world’s most prolific creators of interactive content. He has created breakthrough entertainment experiences on every digital platform, including satellite television, game consoles, broadband Internet, interactive television and mobile networks. His expertise spans television, telecommunications and software.

In 2009, he was named one of the “25 Executives to Watch” by Digital Media Wire. Variety has named him one of the “Digital Dozen” most influential players in new media. The Industry Standard dubbed him a “TV Anarchist”. His 22-year career is marked by achievements which include several milestones: the first multichannel television service in Asia (STAR TV in 1991); the first multiplayer Java games on the Web (Sony, 1997); the first interactive game shows on US Television (Sony, 1999); the world’s first streaming video service on mobile phones (PacketVideo and NTT DoCoMo’s V-Live, 2001); the largest audience for live interactive video events on the web (Oprah Winfrey’s 2009 web casts); the most popular free book download in history (Suze Orman on Oprah.com, 2009).

Kelly Dempski – Managing Director, Accenture Technology Labs

Kelly leads the R&D program for “Digital Experiences” at ATL This program is focused on developing new ways for Accenture’s clients to interact with their customers and workforces using emerging technologies in the areas of social media, mobile devices, gamification, and new modes of interaction on the web and in the physical world. In addition to new forms of interaction, the Digital Experiences group identifies new types of data and new forms of analytics that can help strengthen customer relationships and drive new levels of personalized experiences. This work is focused on measuring and understanding modes of influence, sharing behaviors, and navigating graphs of interests and interactions.

Lots of you have been asking about wifi access at the Rio All-Suites Hotel where most NMX attendees are staying. Well, the Rio All-Suites Hotel & Casino has decided to roll out the red carpet for us! Check out the note from the Rio below:

The Rio All-Suites and Convention Center is happy to welcome New Media Expo to Las Vegas. To show our appreciation to the NMX community, we are now offering complimentary hotel room Internet service to all registered attendees for one device per day per room.

Please feel free to choose either hard wired or wifi service for your one device per room. Any incurred Internet charges will be removed at checkout. This is a savings of $13.95 per day. Please note additional devices will be charged the regular rate.

Enjoy your stay and your time at NMX ’13.

Thanks to the Rio for taking care of our attendees! See you in Vegas this weekend!

Allison’s Note: The Internet you want is “lodgenet.” When you’re taken to the login/payment page, type your last name in all caps (otherwise it will say that the guest name and room number don’t match). If you still get an error message, call the front desk – wireless Internet was turned off in my room, so it might be in yours too.

We’re pleased to announce that the Opening Party for NMX will take place on Sunday, January 6 at Lavo (at the Palazzo Hotel). Come join other attendees for a great time as we celebrate the first day (and night!) of the conference.

The party starts at 10pm and lasts until midnight. As you’ll soon see, Lavo is spectacular. This 5,000 square foot nightclub is a feast for the eyes. And, to ensure we have a good time, Guinness Black Lager and U4RIK Vodka will be supplying thirsty NMX-ers with drinks, too! Just remember to wear your NMX badge to gain entry.

We know we’ve been throwing lots of information at you about the conference, so we wanted to put everything together in one post for your easy reference. So, bookmark this and share it. You may want to reference it throughout the conference, too.

Have you ever gone to a conference and seen folks handing out brochures, flyers, and swag while standing in hallways or outside of session rooms? Do you wonder why they’re not on the Expo floor showcasing in a booth? It’s because what they’re doing is unethical. They’re suitcasing.

As the name indicates, suitcasing is when someone presents their business from a bag or suitcase so that it’s easier for them to zip up and run if they spot conference organizers. Suitcasing is also the practice of putting flyers, cards, business cards and promotional material on all available surfaces without the blessing of the conference organizers. In essence, it’s stealing. You see, there are people who pay good money to exhibit and sponsor to share with our community. People who are suitcasing are bypassing this fee to present on the sly. Our exhibitors and sponsors enable us to put on our conference, so the people who are suitcasing are also stealing from attendees. The less money we make, the less money we can spend on food, parties and bells and whistles. Moreover, the less money we make, the more we have to charge.

What happens if you’re caught suitcasing

If you’re coming to NMX as a sponsored content creator, the brand you’re representing may ask you to hand out flyers or t-shirts. Please know that this is considered suitcasing. It’s one thing to chat with others about what you do, that’s why we go to conferences, right? It’s a whole other story to walk the aisles and hallways giving out promotional items without permission. If you’re caught you’ll, at the very least, be asked to put your materials away. However, the most likely scenario is that you’ll be booted out of the show.

If you’re planning on bringing promotional materials to NMX and you’re not sure if it’s considered suitcasing, don’t be afraid to ask us. We’d rather chat with you about what you’re doing than have to ask you to leave. We’re nice people, really, we just don’t want anyone stealing from our attendees, exhibitors, sponsors and the team that works so hard to bring you the best possible conference.

How can you represent your brand without suitcasing

If your brand isn’t into a booth (but we encourage them to get one – there’s still time!) there are ways to represent them without suitcasing:

Wear branded clothing. Wearing a t-shirt with a brand logo isn’t suitcasing, and everyone does it. In fact, it’s a great conversation starter.

Collect business cards: As you talk to attendees, collect business cards to bring back to the brand. Please explain why you’re doing so, however, so no one receives unwanted promotional material.

Blog: Live blog from the event and mention your sponsor. Let folks know that they sent you to the conference so you can learn, and also let folks know what your sponsor does and why they might want to follow them. You don’t have to be spammy about it, but most folks understand sponsors require promotional posts and tweets.

Tweet: Thank your sponsor on Twitter for sending you to the conference.

At NMX we want our attendees to have the best experience possible. We want them to be able to walk our hallways or hang out in the New Media Lounge without being bombarded with unwanted sales pitches. Please think before suitcasing.

If you’re taking photos at #NMX, please feel free to share them on our Facebook page, or on Twitter or Instagram using the #NMX hashtag.

If you’re coming to NMX in Las Vegas, it’s a good bet you’re social savvy. You know how to tweet, have a presence on Facebook, pin on Pinterest and even give G+ a whirl from time to time. That’s good, because being social is a great way to not only share with NMX attendees, but it’s also a way to make those who can’t attend feel as if they’re with us anyway.

While we hope the majority of your conference socializing is of the offline variety, what follows are the different things you need to know about getting social (online) at New Media Expo.

Where to Follow Us

First and foremost – Come to where the action is. We’re going to be quite busy and probably won’t be updating all of our channels every day, but you can bet there will be plenty of activity on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. What follows is a list of places to follow NMX so you don’t miss a thing:

Facebook: Look to be inundated with photos and updates coming from New Media Expo ’13.

Twitter: We announced earlier this year that we have a new Twitter handle – @NewMediaExpo

Google+: We still have a regular presence on Google+ and will do our best to update when we can.

Instagram: Follow us on Instagram @NewMediaExpo and use the tag #NMX to view photos or upload your own. And don’t forget to take part in our Instagram photo contest!

Pinterest: We may not be updating Pinterest from the show but check out our speaker board to learn more about NMX ’13 presenters.

Using Hashtags

The official hashtag for New Media Expo ’13 is #NMX. Use this hashtag when referring to our conference on Twitter, Google+ and Instagram. The social business portion of NMX, BusinessNext also has a hashtag: #biznext.

Many speakers offer hashtags for their specific sessions which they’ll announce at the beginning of their presentations. It helps them to gauge the enthusasiam, support, and reaction of attendees if you tweet about their sessions using their hashtags, and it’s also a way to share feedback to both NMX and speakers. If you have room in your tweets, do try and use the #NMX hashtag in addition to others.

Reaching out to the NMX team

The NMX team is here for you. Please feel free to approach us with any questions, comments, hugs, handshakes, and feedback at any time during #NMX. Many of us will be hanging out in the New Media Lounge, so please have a seat and chat with us. If you have a question and you don’t see anyone from the team, or, if you’re feeling a bit shy, we’ll be checking the social networks regularly. Reaching out to us on Facebook and Twitter are your best options because we’ll be checking them the most. And please, feel free to email me at deb@blogworldexpo.com with any questions or concerns.

Sharing your stuff with the #NMX community

There are so many people who wanted to make it to NMX so bad but just couldn’t swing it this time. Your social participation will help them to attend vicariously. We would love for you to post your photos and comments on our Facebook page, share images on Instagram using the hashtag #NMX, and share tweets, images and more on Twitter.

Sharing on the social networks also helps us to track the success of NMX. Through your social sharing, we know which aspects of New Media Expo worked out well, and where the clunkers happened. We know which exhibitors are receiving the most buzz, and who was the most accommodating to the NMX community. We learn if the NMX team is being helpful and supportive to our community, or if we need to take someone out back to the woodshed. You help shape our conference, so please don’t be shy.

We look forward to your sharing on the social networks next week at NMX. Let’s see what we can do to make the hashtag really explode!

Nothing is more rewarding for conference organizers like us than seeing photos of our events shared online. Though we have an official photographer roaming the New Media Expo floor, it’s your candid shots that really capture the essence of NMX and what we feel it’s all about. At BlogWorld NY, our #BWENY hashtag showed great activity on Instagram. At NMX ’13 in Las Vegas, we’d like to reward our community for sharing their photos on Instagram, by offering a chance at three different prizes.

First, the details.

NMX ’13 Instagram Contest: The Guidelines

We’re not going to be too strict about this, but we do have a few guidelines:

All eligible photos must be posted on Instagram using the #NMX hashtag: We love to see your photos on Facebook, Twitter and blogs, but for your images to be eligible, they must be posted to Instagram using the correct hashtag – #NMX.

Photographs must be posted between the dates of Saturday, January 5th and Wednesday, January 9th: The contest is being held while #NMX is in session, though we will add a day before or after to allow for parties, travel, etc.

For a photo to be eligible, it must be taken at #NMX sanctioned events: it can be taken at NMX in any of the sessions, hallways, the New Media Lounge, the Expo floor or anywhere else in the Rio Conference Center while NMX is in session. Photos can also come from official #NMX parties, including the speaker reception. However, if the party isn’t an NMX event, it’s not eligible for submission in the Instagram contest.

Photographs must be appropriate: We know you’re having fun, and the NMX community is generally well-behaved, but please, no middle finger salutes, boob shots or tasteless photos.

The Prizes

Of course you want to know why you should participate in the NMX ’13 Instagram contest. While we hope you’re going to post your photos online anyway, we do want to offer some incentive. Three winners will receive passes to New Media Expo ’14. The winners will be chosen in the following categories:

Humor – Make us laugh!

Geekiness – One random, geeky photo of NMX co-founder Dave Cynkin’s choosing will win a prize. What does that mean? We don’t know either. Surprise us!

Spirit – The photo that best captures the spirit of NMX – why we do what we do and why people come to our show every year. Is it the networking? Is it the learning? You tell us!

See you at #NMX!

We can’t wait to see you at NMX and look forward to seeing your photos on Instagram. Every photo meeting the above criteria is eligible. See you in a few days!

NMX attendees, are you looking for something fun to do while in Las Vegas? Well if you’re a horror fan like I am, consider checking out Goretorium! They’re offering free attendance for all NMX pass holders in exchange for an honest review of the experience (just show your conference badge and I.D.).

Goretorium is a year-round haunted house from horror movie director Eli Roth. You might know Eli from movies such as Hostel and Cabin Fever, and if you’ve seen either of these gory flicks, you know what to expect at Goretorium! This self-guided tour features live actors, animatronics, and of course, tons of special effects that will send shivers down your spine.

After your tour, you can relax at the ’60s-inspired Baby Dolls Lounge, which features a complete horror-inspired cocktail list and the occasional zombie feeding.

Take a look at some scenes from Goretorium, and then check it out live while you’re in Vegas!